Kate Middleton will use Hypnobirthing: My Experience Using the Methond

Kate Middleton is reported to plan on relying on hypnobirthing techniques to deliver her and Prince William‘s first child due any day now.

Just thought I’d reshare my 2009 post about my experience using the method for those curious. Hope it is helpful:

For me, I had an excellent experience using a hypnobirthing CD that was recommended to me by someone years ago and I ordered on the Internet. I was hoping it would help me cope with and manage the expected pain. (Little did I know I would end up getting a c-section, which would be one of a series of three total in my life). I used it with tremendous success and would highly recommend it.

I began listening to the two CD set about 3 months from my due date and would listen to them before bed, when I’d have a spare moment in the afternoon on weekends and sometimes while in the car though in hindsight, I wouldn’t recommend doing that just in case you get lulled to sleep. Um not a great idea.

In any event, CD 1, if I remember it correctly, introduced me and the listeners to the idea of using your mind and brain to escape to a place other than the physical here and now. A woman narrator with a calm assuring voice walked you through the process. After a few lessons in “visualization”, the sessions went on to managing and controlling the pain by taking your brain to a new, less painful place in you brain. It teaches you how to internalize and “ride” the crescendo of pain that comes with each contraction, like a wave, almost until it peaks and eases you down again in preparation for the next one. The goal is to not focus so much on the pain but on the exercise for coping.

The second CD were tracks of simple relaxation music set for you to practice your newly learned “visualization” skills. During this second set, the woman guided you to a different location and had you focus on visualizing this location and being there in your mind. My favorite which I remembered was laying on a beach with the warm sun beaming down on me, the cool breeze from a nearby coconut tree blowing, the sound of the water calmly coming onto the shore and falling back, the sound of seagulls honking overhead, the horn of a faraway passing cruise ship. Man, I tell ya, I was so into my “peaceful place” when I was able to “go there” that it would take a fleet of firetrucks and a herd of stampeding elephants to yank me back. Seriously!

And I can honestly say those techniques totally worked for me to manage my pain and take me away. And I use them today. I am a crybaby and fear needles and use those techniques whenever I have to get a shot at the doctors for a physical. And in other situations, If I am experiencing some other temporary sharp but prolonged pain from stumping my toe on a bed post to experiencing menstrual cramping to getting a “stitch” while running, I let my mind take me away in a similar fashion to the way I learned using hypnobirthing. The benefits go beyond the labor and childbirth process.

All of this rambling to say I highly recommend giving hypnobirthing techniques a try. I must admit it may not be for everyone. Not all people are “mental” like that and are able to suspend their existence in this world. You have to be the type of person who is able to sit still and clear the mind for even a 10 minute span of time. I dare say in this world of “hurry up” and instant gratification, not that many people may have the patience to learn and actually give the techniques a chance to work.

It may be great for dreamers like myself who have their heads in the clouds most of the time anyway!

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